For the First Time
by reecse42
Summary: Mara left Noah after she finished her memoirs. Noah initially struggled, but was able to get back on his feet. But when Noah's daughter sees a woman staring at her father, will Noah be able to move on from the past again, or will Mara haunt him forever? Oneshot inspired by For the first time by the Script. Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters to the trilogy.


**Here's that Mara Dyer oneshot I promised you all. Please leave a review!**

**Enjoy!**

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It had been twenty years since she left him. After she wrote her memoirs, she decided to heed Lukumi's advice. One night she was snuggled next to him in bed, and in the morning she, Daniel, and Jamie were gone.

The first six months were the hardest for him. Noah would go to one of the local bars and drink until early in the morning. He would stagger home and crash for a few hours before his first class for the day and wake up refreshed.

Noah hated it. He hated how his heart cried in pain but the rest of his body would not succumb to any of it. All he wanted to do was drown, but he always swam back to the surface.

As the years dragged on, the pain started to dull. His drinking slowed and the need to drown became a wish, then it became nothing. Noah met a girl the fall of junior year, and they married a week after graduation. They decided to move to Miami to be closer to Ruth and Katie who decided to attend Florida University.

Ten years later they had a pair of twins and another on the way. His memories of her slowly faded as he started his new life with his family. Three beautiful children and a loving wife can make anyone disappear.

After his last child was born, Noah packed up his family and moved to New York. For nine years he lived in peace, healing others and nursing his scars.

On one particularly dreary day, Noah was walking up Fifth Avenue with his youngest, Naomi. Her little feet splashed through the puddles as his sloshed through them. She was humming "You are my sunshine" under her breath as thoughts of his next trip to Africa floated in his mind.

Suddenly, Naomi stopped humming and her feet stopped moving. Noah didn't notice she had stopped until he felt a tug on his arm.

"Daddy, why is that lady staring at us?" she asked pointing. Her hood fell off and her blonde hair became soaked from the rain.

"I don't see any woman, Naomi," Noah replied as he peered across the street. He reached over and pulled his daughter's hood back on before wiping his damp hands on his pants.

"Yes there is. The lady with the dark hair," Naomi said again. "I think she's staring at you. Does she know you are married?"

He peered across the street again to see a woman his age staring back. Her dark curls were plastered to her pale face, and her dark eyes bore into his light ones. Her arm wrapped around a little boy's thin shoulders.

She looked like...

Mara.

Thinking her name brought back a thousand memories. Memories of Horizons, of her sound, of her fears and worries that something was actually wrong with her. Memories of love.

But, the bad memories came back too. Memories of her dying in his arms, of Jude stabbing him in the chest, of her full manifestation, of Lukumi's words. Memories of why she left.

Without thinking, Noah led Naomi across the street to meet the woman. All he wanted to see was if she was real. All he wanted to know was why she left him. All he wanted was her.

"Mara?" he asked as he stepped onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road. "Mara Dyer, is that you?"

The woman slowly blinked in confusion as she asked, "Noah Shaw?"

"Is that really you, Mara?" Noah asked as he stepped closer. Naomi shrunk back and hid behind his legs. The child in Mara's grip did the same.

Noah looked closer at Mara. She looked the same with her pale complexion, dark curls, and strong dark eyes. Her sound was mostly the same, but he sensed differences. He could see grey streaks in her hair, a tiredness filled her eyes, her sound was less pronounced, like she was growing old and weary. It had been twenty years, and the years were not kind to her. But they weren't kind to him either.

"I thought I... I thought you moved back to Miami," Mara - for he knew it was her - stated after a while.

"Yeah, but we moved back here nine years ago," Noah replied, nervously rubbing his neck. "What to you that night you left me... twenty years ago."

"Oh," Mara said as she casted her eyes to the ground. "Jamie and I went to Buffalo and Daniel went back to Miami. He's still there, and had a kid. Who knew he would marry Sophie?"

They lapsed into an uncomfortable silence as Mara stared at him intently and people pushed around them, creating an island in the sea. He could feel her comparing him to the Noah she knew and the Noah he was now. Her discoveries were etched onto her face, and he knew she saw all the pain for all those years ago resurface.

"Who's the kid?" Noah finally asked. He internally winced at the way he said it.

"Oh, this is Adam. As much as Jamie hated Adam at Horizons, he thought naming his oldest after him was a good way to remember him. Who's yours?"

Mara had married Jamie after they left him. Noah looked at Adam closely to see that he had darker skin than Mara, but the same big, dark eyes and curly hair.

"This is Naomi. I was just glad my wife decided to let me name our last," Noah finally responded as he pushed Naomi forward gently. She immediately went behind his legs again.

"You married?" Mara asked as a pained smile crossed her face. Noah could feel a change in her sound and his heart tore. A deep sadness overrode her tiredness and he felt bitter that he cause her the pain. But she also married, and he hadn't let his pain show.

"Yeah, I met her a year after you left. We've been together ever since."

"And Naomi's the youngest?" Mara asked. "Out of how many?"

"Three. The twins - Stella and Joseph - are the oldest," Noah replied slowly. "What about you?"

"Four right now - Adam, Megan, Jude, and Claire - with a fifth on the way," Mara said as a smile crossed her face and her hand patted her stomach. Noah glanced down and saw the swell to her stomach.

"So much has changed," Noah whispered as he looked at Mara.

She was the Shadow and he was the Hero. Death followed her while life followed him. Their paths had crossed only for them to go their separate ways. And now their paths brought them back together.

"Indeed," Mara agreed. She grabbed Adam's hand and pulled an umbrella out of her purse. She handed it to him and he opened it, holding it above his damp head.

"I have to get back to the hotel. Jamie and I are meeting his client at six and his cousin's coming over to watch the kids," Mara explained as she checked her watch.

"Oh, yeah, I - we should get back home, right Naomi?" Noah stuttered looking down at Naomi. She nodded and grabbed Noah's hand.

Mara nodded. "It was nice seeing you again."

"You too," Noah called as Naomi dragged him away.

The rain pelted Noah and Naomi as they made a mad dash up the rest of Fifth Avenue to their pent house. Emotions pelted Noah's heart as he thought about how much he and Mara had changed. They had moved on from each other, and started families with new people.

"Daddy, was that lady a friend of yours?" Naomi asked as rain fell into her eyes.

"Yes," he started slowly. "I knew her before I met Mommy. It was a long time before you were born."

"What happened? Why did she leave you?"

"It's a story for another day."

"But you'll tell me, right Daddy?" Naomi asked as she wiped the rain from her eyes. It looked like she was crying if Noah didn't know it was rain.

"Yes, I'll tell all three of you the story when you're older," Noah promised as he smiled down at his daughter.

"Does Mommy know?" Naomi asked as she jumped into a puddle, splashing water on both of them.

"Yes, I told Mommy, and she decided to stay with me," Noah answered as he opened the door to the apartment building.

"Is it a scary story?" Naomi questioned as she walked in and shook her head, dislodging water droplets from her hair.

"Yes, it's a scary story. That's why I'll tell you when you're older," Noah said as he ran a hand through his wet hair.

"I'll still love you, Daddy," Naomi said as she wrapped her arms around Noah's waist. "You help so many people now that the bad thing that happened so long ago doesn't matter anymore."

Noah looked down at his daughter, and she raised her eyes to his. He saw the same spark in her eyes that Noah's mother and Mara had when they looked at him - love.

Naomi loved him even though he made so many mistakes in his past. This was the first time in a long time that he felt whole and happy.

"Yeah, Naomi. It doesn't matter. For the first time in a long time I see that," Noah smiled down at his daughter. "Come on, let's go see what Mommy has made for dinner."

Naomi smiled and and grabbed Noah's hand, leading her father up to their pent house, and Noah to his new outlook on life.

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**I hoped you like it. Please favorite and review! Thank you for reading!**

**Happy reading! :)**


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